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Burnie Gift

E.R. Terry of Pyengana (11 yds), wins the 1925 Burnie Gift in 13 secs from A.M. Stuart (Hobart), M. Campbell (Devonport), and G.F. Triffett (Queenstown)[1]

The Burnie Gift is a professional footrace held in Burnie, Tasmania during an annual sports carnival, held on a grass track at West Park Oval on New Year's Eve. It is conducted by the Tasmanian Athletic League in conjunction with the Burnie Athletic Club. The Burnie Gift is a sprint event conducted over the traditional 'Gift' distance of 120 metres.

Athletes are allocated handicaps with a range from scratch (running the full 120 metres) to the current limit of 12.00 metres. An athlete off 12.00m would run 108 metres. Most athletes (and winners) run from a handicap between 5.0m and 10.0m, thereby covering anywhere from 115m to 110m. Handicaps are assigned by a panel based on an assessment of each athlete’s track performances.[2] Athletes are separated by lane ropes as opposed to painted lanes on synthetic tracks. The finish line is a finishing gate that each athlete must run through to record a time.

The Burnie Carnival is the premier running carnival in Tasmania and is considered one of the 'big three' professional Gifts in Australia along with Victoria's Stawell Gift and the Bay Sheffield in South Australia. Along with the feature event, the Burnie carnival includes races over 90m, 400m and 1600m. The Burnie carnival is one of three Tasmanian Christmas Carnivals conducted over a seven-day period from 26 December to 1 January. The other carnivals are held at Latrobe and Devonport.

  1. ^ Burnie Sports, The Mercury, (Friday 2 January 1925), p.8. Sports in the Country, ‘’The Argus’’, (Friday, 2 January 1925), p.2.
  2. ^ Tasmanian Athletic League. "Tasmanian Athletic League Sprint Handicapping Guidelines 2017 / 2018" (PDF). sportstg.com.

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